Who Really Is A Product Designer?

Who is a Product Designer in the digital age? We decided to look for an answer to this question. Before we get to that, however, let’s understand what “design” really means in today’s context. Traditionally, the word has been used to describe pure aesthetics. If you still cling to that definition, let’s bring you up to speed. Design is much more than just aesthetics, and not every “designer” is the same, in that not all the people who have the word “designer” in their job title “make things pretty”. I say this because so many people, even in the tech industry, have got the idea of design all wrong.

Yes, when we talk about a product, visual design is an important part of the overall design, but that’s not all there is to it. Design is often seen as an object, but it’s so much more. It should rather be seen as a process, because essentially, it’s a way to make things better. In Sciences of the Artificial, Herbert Simon defined it as the “transformation of existing conditions into preferred ones”, which I think is a great way of putting it, because it tells us how much the word really weighs. It tells us that design is about improving things.